Who doesn’t love a good cookie? I know I certainly do. Please meet our newest contributor is Chef Chris Jolly, the author of his blog As Raw As You Wanna Be. Today he’s sharing his first recipe with us and hopefully many more.

Chef Chris Jolly is a vegan chef specializing in raw foods. Chef Chris serves oversees the raw food production at North American Vegetarian Society’s Summerfest, one of the largest vegetarian conferences in the world. He has written for Natural Awakening Magazine, written for and been featured in the Asbury Park Press, and his recipes and products have appeared on Glamour.com and OneGreenPlanet.Org among others. Chef Chris lives in San Diego where you can catch him relaxing on the beach, hiking a mountain and generally keeping it classy in America’s finest city.

I love cookies! Come on…who doesn’t like cookies? They are sweet, delicious, chewy, crumbly and handheld. This is another super duper easy to make raw food recipe that requires little time and can be recreated in moments with no advanced technique required–and it is delicious. I do use agave in this recipe, but if there another liquid sweetener that you prefer such as coconut nectar, yacon or maple syrup, feel free to substitute instead. Another great swap is to use a 1/2 cup of pitted and soaked dates in place of a liquid sweetener. There is a little coconut sugar in these cookies additionally. Feel free to omit if you like, but these are cookies, so a little decadence is essential.

Chewy Chocolate Orange Cookies

Makes 1 dozen large or 2 dozen medium cookies

2 cups cashews

3/4 cup cacao powder

1/2 cup shredded coconut

1/2 cup agave nectar

1/2 cup coconut sugar crystals
2 T orange juice

1/2 T vanilla (powder, bean, extract)

2 t pink Himalayan salt

2 pinches orange zest

Add all ingredients to a food processor and process for about a minute until you have a uniform mixture. Use a cookie scoop or your hands to form into cookies and place on a lined dehydrator tray. Dehydrate for 2 hours at 115 degrees. For a different twist on this treat form into small balls, transfer to freezer to set and then dunk in your favorite ganache/chocolate sauce.

And remember–if you’re supposed to be taking photos to share with people, make sure you remember before eating half the cookies…I told you they were delicious!

Our newest guest blogger is a newly converted vegan mom with three children under three years old. Her blog is aptly named: Three Under Three. Here she is in her own words, ” My name is Joanne Dabbs and I created a blog about family, vegan food and fashion. I am a mum to three young children and I recently made the switch to a vegan lifestyle.” Follow Joanne on her blog, Facebook and Twitter. Please welcome Joanne!

How much do you love me?

I’m willing to bet you love me just a little bit more now.

When people ask me what I miss most since turning vegan, I tend to automatically say cheese. Whilst it’s true that I do occasionally miss cheese (but not enough to eat it) I realised the other day that what I actually miss most is cookies.

Moist, chewy, delicious cookies with huge chocolate chunks!

Well, the craving finally got the best of me! I had to give in and make a batch of chocolate chunk cookies (why bother with chocolate chips when you can have chunks?!)

Recipe (makes approx. 30 cookies)

2 cups plain flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup vegan dark chocolate, cut into chunks

1 cup vanilla sugar (you could also use caster sugar)

1/2 cup coconut or vegetable oil (I used coconut oil)

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/4 cup water

1/4 cup milk of choice (I used soy milk)

Instructions

1. Mix together flour, baking powder and salt, Stir in chocolate chunks. 2. Mix sugar and oil well (if you are using coconut oil you may need to melt it slightly.

3. Add the vanilla, water, and milk and mix well.4. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix just until combined.

5. Roll the mixture into small balls and flatten slightly on an ungreased baking tray.6. Bake for 5 minutes and then rotate the sheet 180 degrees. Bake for another 5 minutes.7. Check them every couple of minutes until the cookies are a little softer then you want them to be.

8. Remove from the oven and let the cookies cool for a couple of minutes on the baking tray before moving to a cooling rack to continue cooling.9. Try not to eat the whole batch before they’ve had chance to cool!

Enjoy!

*Please excuse the fact that there are only 4 cookies in the pictures. I forgot to tell Matt that the cookies in the cupboard were waiting to be photographed. Oops!

So exciting to see such different people making veganism their choice in life. Please welcome a new blogger to the VBU family – Lucy! She is the blogger of Lucy’s Friendly Foods. Here she is in her own words: “I am Lucy, a Cordon Bleu trained cook (including patisserie) who has turned to vegan friendly food as I’m a veggie and both my daughters are allergic to milk and eggs. I have been astounded at how vegan baking can surpass any preconceptions and be utterly delicious. This blog is letting me try new recipes all the time and let my daughters eat so they don’t feel they miss out. Once tried, there is no turning back from vegan baking.” Please follow Lucy on Twitter here. Welcome Lucy!

I love these cookies – they’re rich, chocolaty, soft and scrumptious! I had a brief time before having children when I wanted to start a cookie business and back then these were some of my absolute favourites. I’ve never been brave enough to attempt a dairy/egg free version before, but my recent baking successes spurred me on. In fact, they work pretty well (even if I say so myself), so now both daughters have ‘safe’ homemade cookies to take into school tomorrow. Minteos and Noreos to year 3, chocolate earthquakes to reception – hope they like them 🙂

Vegan Fling is a blog dedicated to easy and delicious vegan recipes and desserts. Melissa is new to the vegan world, but is loving all the new things she is learning through blogging and trying out new foods! Please follow Melissa on Twitter. Please welcome Vegan Fling!

These crunchy cookies came out great! They remind me of eating granola… just more portable and there is chocolate involved.